Chansky's Notebook: No TOs, Baby!

No matter what happens tonight, don’t expect early time outs from Ol’ Roy.

During Roy Williams’ press conference before the Ohio State game, he gave a two-minute dissertation about his philosophy on not calling time outs. It could have lasted ten seconds, long enough for him to say, “You guys and the public make a big deal of that crap. We’ve done OK not calling any of those timeouts and we’re going to stick with it.”

Williams was asked about not calling a time out when Michigan was on a 19-2 run that pretty much decided the semifinal game of the Battle4Atlantis. With Roy, it goes back years, like when he did not take a time out while getting blown out by Kansas in the 2008 Final Four. Of not taking a TO versus Michigan, he said:

“I can’t say a lot if you’re 1-for-15. Shoot the ball in, do you think my guys want to miss? It was frustrating because I thought about calling a timeout and said, ‘This is not the way I want to teach.’ And I didn’t do it, and they scored again, we missed again, and they scored again, we missed again.”

He learned long ago to save his time outs for the end of the game.

“I always think regardless of what the score is we’re going to have a close game at the end. I don’t care how many down we are. I think we’re going to come back. Even at that point, in the huddle after I called the timeout, I still told them there is so much time left, we can win the game. I think it’s fool’s gold. . . it’s easy to change the score – play better on the defensive end and play better on the offensive end. So they don’t need me to tell them that. Some coaches do, and that’s OK. But that’s not me, it’s not who I am. It’s never going to change, because again, why would I change something – if you guys can convince me that I’m a sorry-ass coach and should do it differently, then I’m still not going to believe you. So you can’t convince me.”

Roy remembered when he called a timeout in the national championship game against Illinois in 2005. He told them, “I don’t have anything to say. I just thought I’d tell you guys how much fun it’s going to be, if we play our butts off these last four minutes, we’re going to be national champions. My son could’ve done that, and he hasn’t coached at this level.”

So, no matter what happens tonight against the undefeated and sixth-ranked Buckeyes, who play a slow tempo and usually don’t blow out opponents, the UNC coach won’t be calling a time out until he needs one late in the game. The Heels usually come back to make it close, like against Michigan when they were down 24 and rallied to lose by only nine points.

“I like the fact we did come back, but I expect us to. I really do,” Ol’ Roy said.